Street Art in Ljubljana – Slovenia

When you think of Ljubl­jana, the first words that come into your mind are prob­a­bly Slove­nian Cap­i­tal, roman­tic, river­side café cul­ture and vibrant. Well, let’s stick to the last one, because that is exactly what I was look­ing for.

I was in the old town, look­ing at the bee­hive of tourists gaz­ing at city maps. I must have seemed lost I think, because sud­denly a guy speaks to me:

Can I help you?

Can you? I say with a smile.

I thought he was just play­ing his local flirt tricks on a poor daz­zled tourist like me. But he was wear­ing a shirt with the word Tour-guide on it, among oth­ers. So I wag my tail with joy, and ask him to send me in his favorite part of the town.

He says: but it’s far away.

And I don’t care, I said.

This is how I have dis­cov­ered the Metelkova City artis­tic space, a place where graf­fiti is a form of art, not van­dal­ism. Metelkova is a non-res­i­den­tial squat with build­ings that used to be the bar­racks of the Yugosla­vian army . This free ‘city within a city’ is a sanc­tu­ary for artists. It houses open air gal­leries, stu­dios and bars which sell tax –free alco­hol. You can find it at 20 min­utes walk­ing dis­tance from the old city cen­ter.

Where else to Find Street Art in Ljubljana

Besides Metelkova, there are other two loca­tions

Rog — For­mer bicy­cle fac­tory, now cul­tural parc with many events

Trubar­jeva Cesta — a shop­ping street with cheap restau­rants and loads of graf­fiti